Thirty-One Theses read in Los Angeles in December

At a CLiuAnon event in Los Angeles in December, the speaker read the first 16 of what they called “Thirty-One Theses,” tying Left politics to non-instrumental relations, warning against market-driven ideology, and arguing that social media ecosystems and insti

In a Los Angeles room during a CLiuAnon event in December, the speaker opened with what they called their “Thirty-One Theses” — first 16 of them, read aloud with the urgency of something meant to land now, not later.

The theses move quickly between the personal and the structural. The central claim is that “the individual is no longer a given in a fully reified society”: relationships beyond “the most primal. preverbal attachments” have been coded. commodified. and made vulnerable to exploitation — whether through surveillance capitalism. identity liberalism. or what the speaker describes as “carnivalesque conservatism.”.

From there, the message sharpens. The speaker argues that the saturation of the world with liberal and anti-liberal ideology makes the market — not the marketplace of ideas — seem like an escape valve. For Leftists. they say. understanding markets. understanding capital. and understanding the relationship to them becomes necessary. because the “saddest form of bourgeois escapism” is a detour through “idealism. ” whether religious or political.

Christian nationalism, in this telling, is not treated as a purely theological shift. It’s framed as the product of media consolidation and individual atomization. The speaker says the movement’s agonistic worldview resonates because it “does reflect. mythologically on a primal battle. ” only the battle that matters is “fought on spreadsheets with algorithms and CBAs.” The “primal war” they say can’t be faced is being waged on behalf of capital against workers.

The theses insist on a different North Star for Left politics: “Promoting, cultivating and defending absolutely non-instrumental relations between people and people, and people and art should be the goal.”

There are also moments that sound like working rules for daily life. “Remember that you cannot express yourself ‘authentically’ or ‘professionally’ at all times and in all places.” The speaker calls “speaking truth to power” a “complete cliché. ” pointing to how it becomes routinized at faculty meetings and professional conferences lit by fluorescent lights. Restraint. they say. is “a good and necessary thing. ” and retreat can be “a strategic sign of strength: retreat is not surrender.”.

Even disagreement gets reframed as craft. When a dogmatic liberal or conservative makes “outrageous statements in person or on line,” the speaker suggests a simple response: a strong “disagree,” whether in conversation or in a post.

Culture, in these theses, isn’t only about ideas. It’s also about production and attention. The speaker describes an online ecology shaped by “Botoxed influencers and extremely gelled right wing talking heads. ” saying it thrives because there are no good jobs for young people in content production professions and because so many rewards flow to those who become “a living ancillary appendage to the app.”.

The speaker also warns that before leaping to political judgment, people need to understand the context of production. Most people. they say. are not political — and the attempt to keep them in an always-on state of mobilization gets treated by liberals as fascism. The result. in their view. is anger inflamed by “Red and Blue MAGA” that becomes a “lumpen proletariat of opportunists. provocateurs and larpers. ” especially drawn to demagogues and celebrities.

Alongside that, the speaker describes how history is being erased and rewritten by institutions across the spectrum. They say liberal institutions erase history “as much as” conservatives trash it. As the history of class struggle was erased. liberals allegedly rewrote the past through a “fill in the gaps” project of reparation and inclusion.

They extend the argument toward economics and survival. calling the violence of capitalism “in destroying functional market economies” — including smallholders such as farmers and “mom and pop shops” — “inexorable.” They concede that “the abundance bros” grasp part of this. especially in their attacks on the regulatory state that the speaker says impedes local growth. but they argue those prescriptions ultimately promote the interests of capital over small holders.

There’s a direct appeal to solidarity and scale. “Don’t give into the latest version of dirt baggery on the Left. ” the speaker says. warning against making fun of “normies again.” If the horizon is “a massive political mobilization. ” they argue. the movement needs to appeal beyond college-educated people with specialized forms of etiquette.

A related thread runs through the theses’ view of institutions. The speaker says liberalism was historically valuable as “a set of first principles. ” yet its institutions and ideologies are designed to keep out dissenters — including those who object. on the basis of dialectics. to liberalism’s own idea of inclusion.

The speaker then turns to outsiders for guidance: “learn from the gangster and the clown as outsiders to the system of decaying liberalism.” Liberalism. they say. is “encrypted in a tomb of its making. ” with a hunger for “fresh blood” that remains “unabated. ” and they urge readers: “Do not give it your blood.”.

The theses conclude with a blunt note about rebellion and reason. “Freud says that the voice of reason may be quiet. but it is not easily silenced. ” the speaker writes. pairing that faith with the belief that “all people” can find their way to reason. And they add that “it is reasonable to rebel,” citing Mao.

The speaker also asked people to register for the inaugural launch conference for the Palm Springs School for Social Research (PSSSR). stating that “it is only through the individual that the collective can be reached.” They say they will publish the rest of the “Thirty-One Theses” in a follow-up post.

CLiuAnon Thirty-One Theses Los Angeles December event Palm Springs School for Social Research PSSSR Left politics markets capitalism Christian nationalism surveillance capitalism identity liberalism social media cultural identity Mao Freud